1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roller element forming an array of rollers in a roller slide.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
Most of currently available slides are of the roller type.
A typical roller slide is constructed with a pair of side plates which have a multiplicity of freely rotating rollers therebetween, each being assembled by loosely fitted roller elements of 50-120 mm in length and 35-50 mm in diameter on a support shaft and are juxtaposed together to provide a sliding lane.
Consequently, this type of a slide results in little or no, sliding between a player and the roller surfaces and thus exhibits decreased apparent sliding friction of the lane than a conventional slide whose sliding plane is made of a planar material. It is thus most unlikely that frictional heat may be generated by sliding friction with the sliding lane or that a player's clothing may become worn.
However, a problem with the freely rotating rollers of the aforesaid roller slide is that they are so rigid as to cause pain to the hip of players, etc. due to the use of materials such as nylon which have increased wear resistance or weather resistance.
Another typical roller slide is constructed having a pair of side plates and a number of freely rotating rollers arranged side by side therebetween to provide a sliding lane, each of said rollers being defined by four roller elements, each having a length of about 50-120 mm and a diameter of about 30-45 mm at one end and about 35-50 mm at the other end and increasing in thickness from the reduced-diameter end toward the increased-diameter end.
Of the four roller elements forming each of the freely rotating rollers of this conventional roller slide, the two outer roller elements are arranged with the increased-diameter ends outside and the two inner roller elements are arranged with the increased-diameter ends at the center, so that the sliding lane slopes down gently from the center to the lowermost positions, whence it slopes up gently.
While players slide on this slide, it is most likely that they may feel less pain on their hips, since their hips are properly fitted on the center of the sliding lane with their thighs on the right and left lowermost positions. In addition, even when they do not hold themselves erect during sliding, they can slide on the slide along its center line in a stable manner. This is because their thighs may return from either side to the center.
However, this roller slide suffers from such a disadvantage as mentioned in connection with the first-mentioned roller slide.
Another problem with this roller slide is that the roller elements not only have difficulty in rotating due to the support shaft being fixed against rotation, but the support shaft collides with holes in the side plates whenever sliding is complete, making an impactive noise.